A heart in captivity
by Saphfi
Summary: Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy's entire love story. From the second they saw each other to their very last breath. Follow them through time as they develop.


His hands were covered in blood vessels, wrinkles and thin skin. Sometimes he would just sit down and stare at those hands for hours. It happened rarely nowadays, but when he did look himself in the mirror he as good as always had to take a few steps back in shock.

"When did I get this bloody old?" The man muttered to himself as he pondered the loose skin covering his high cheekbones. Once upon a time those cheekbones had been his pride. The cheekbones and his hair, his beautiful hair which once had shone like the brightest of stars. It had now taken the colour of dust rather than of spun, white gold as it used to.

Life had passed like what felt like minutes, all he seemed to have left was memories and scars. And time. The damned time that never really seemed to run out for him but was abruptly dragged away from everyone surrounding. Sometimes he thought that was his penalty, to have to watch them all disappear one by one when he least expected it.

Lucius put on his cloak; it was heavy over his shoulders and forced him to straighten the now rather curved back. He used to be a regal man but now he was simply old. Elderly and worthless. He hadn't really been anyone since she passed, his pride was gone. For what did Lucius Malfoy have to be proud of when he didn't even have his wife?

Clearing his throat, probably way too loudly, he reached for his cane in which his wand lay. It didn't matter if he was loud anymore, there was no one in the manor to hear him anyway. It had been around five years since Lucius had started to lose his hearing. When it first started, he had taken plenty of potions for it, but since no one came to visit anymore he saw no point in hearing. What did he miss out on being deaf? The sounds of his echoing steps as he wandered around the manor? With a shaking hand he got his wand up from the cane, pointed it to his free one and mumbled a spell.

He might be old, but his magic was still infallible. The most beautiful bouquet of daffodils now rested in his hand. Even though it was the same bouquet he had conjured every day for 64 years he could swear it got prettier and prettier for every day that passed. Almost like she had.

The old man pressed the handle and stepped out in the spring sun. It greeted him as if to mock him. Lucius would never understand how the sun could shine without her. 64 years had passed and he could still not get his head around the fact that the earth was still in motion, that the clocks were still ticking and that his heart was still beating. With shaky steps he walked through the manor's gardens, her pride. He had hired a handful of gardeners to make sure they looked exactly the same as they did when she took care of them. He had buried her there. There was no place in the world that could compete with her beauty, not even her own gardens, but he knew how much she liked it there so it had felt like the right place to put her to rest. The stone was in white marble, only the best for her, her name written in pure silver.

" _Narcissa Malfoy  
1955-2099_

 _Putrefaction, haste, oh precious bride,  
To embed our solitary camp.  
Disowned by the world, disowned by God,  
Merely you as hope I own  
You are a rich girl – As dowry you shall give  
the verdant earth to me.  
I'm in pain up here but blissful I shall be  
down together with you.  
When the storms on the seven seas are roaring,  
When terrors inhabits the blooded earth,  
When wars are raging, we'll both be sleeping  
in golden peace."_

He had found the poem in a book in his father's old library. With a slight sigh he sat down in the fauteuil in front of the gravestone. He had installed it there when he had gotten the stone. Sometimes it felt like he spent more time here than anyplace else; and maybe that was true. For where should he spend his time if not with her?

"Daffodils, for you my love" The words left his lips tenderly as he leaned forward to place the flowers in front of the beautiful marble. "My darling heart, did you know that I never intended to survive you? All these years I've been planning for your life after me, been working hard to make sure that all of your needs and wishes were to be satisfied when I passed, only for you to leave me alone. My beautiful little wife, after everything we've been through, you just leave to manage on my own?"

Lucius Malfoy would never really understand that all of this was real, that she did not exist anymore. He could picture her so clearly, her clear porcelain skin, the deep blue eyes filled with love and her magnificent, white blonde hair resting on her thin back.

"You know, I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I saw you. I never actually told you, but I knew from that instant that you were the only one who'd ever really capture my heart." All years they had spent together she had complained about him not talking about his emotions. Oh dear, if she could have seen him now! On the other hand, she might think he had gone soft over the years. "My love, I only have to shut my eyes to feel as if I were there again"

Smiling to the memory, Lucius Malfoy let his lids fall down as leaned back and pictured that warm summer's day in 1961.


End file.
